The boat sped right towards the rock pool. The man driving the boat, a brunette who was probably around the same age as Carter shouted to his team, “Remember, if they start shooting, only then can you fire back. We’re trying to take prisoners here, not lives.” The group, Riot, had been planning to find some way to get to Maria for months, and finally they’d got a lead. Hopefully they didn’t escape.
The group got into the small speed boat, but as the ‘ringleader’ picked her head up she noticed the boat approaching. “Is that one of ours?” She muttered softly before cursing. “You,” She spoke sharply to one of the men, “deal with that,” She jerked her chin to the approaching boat as she started the motor with the other two, who were preparing for the boat to take off. The man gave a salute before stepping off the boat and drew his gun out. He walked over to Carter’s unconscious form and hauled him to the edge of the rock pool, before holding him up by his hair—enough so his tail sparkled in the sunlight. He fired his pistol in the air, trying to draw the attention of the oncoming boat.
The brunette cursed, noticing the glimmer of the tail. He knew that if Maria’s followers had left whoever or whatever that was behind they wouldn’t care what happened to it, whatever was important to them was on that boat. And getting away. But they couldn’t just leave it behind. He turned the boat of course, heading towards the man with the gun rather then the boat, “Shoot him, but. Try not to harm whatever he’s holding.” He ordered to one of his own men who nodded, taking up position with his gun, ready to fire.
The man, Abel, smirked when he got the boat’s attention. The rest of his crew had started their own boat and had begun to move, driving away from the rock pool, then taking off down the coastline. Abel held the gun out, pointing it at the oncoming boat and shooting a warning shot over their heads. “Get closer,” Abel called out, a dare, yanking Carter up by his hair before holding the gun up to the merman’s companion’s head. He was buying the rest of the crew more time. “Get closer to my people and he’s dead.”
Jackson, the brunette driving the boat, pulled the vehicle to a stop a few meters away from Abel and the man, “Just let him go, and we’ll return to the shore, hand him over and we’ll leave you all alone.” Not an ideal position to be in, but to avoid a causality it’ll have to be done.
Abel made a show of thinking it over, looking down at the direction his boat had left in. When he decided they were a good enough distance away, he simply pushing Carter out into the water face first so he landed with a splash. “Fetch,” Abel said simply with a smirk, watching Carter float at the surface with his back up and head hanging down. He still kept his pistol trained on the merman’s companion.
Before Jackson had a chance to jump in and grab Carter, another woman had already dove in, probably the strongest swimmer of the group. She knew the chances of getting shot were high, but there was a loud bang and one of Jackson’s men shot, aiming straight for Abel. That gave enough time for the woman to bring Carter back to the boat, hauling him onto the deck.
Abel dove for the ground, but he was too slow. The bullet lodged itself in his gut and blood already began rushing out of him by the time he hit the ground. He cursed loudly, but he did his job. He bought his people time, and that’s what mattered. And Carter hardly knew anything about what hit him, he was unconscious before he could even realize what was happening—so he wasn’t a liability.
Jackson sped off, the boat heading straight for the shore line. Whoever his man was, he knew about what was going on, he was involved somehow. But he had a tail? He’d heard stories and he knew Maria was looking for a ‘sea demon’ but if it wasn’t the man on this boat then who was it? He just hoped he’d wake up soon.
Carter was fully unaware of what was going on. At best, the dart would wear off in ten minutes or so. If one didn’t know any better, they might’ve thought him dead considering how his breath had turned shallow and how he didn’t show many signs of waking up.
Back at the rock pool, Abel had called the ‘ringleader’. He was guaranteed some help in an hour, when things had died down, so for the time being he’d tried his best to patch up the bullet wound and pray it wasn’t fatal.
They pulled up into a secluded area on the coast line, hidden away from view. The only people who knew who to access this area was Jackson and his men. While some of Jackson’s men headed off the boat and towards the cliffs, Jackson and a couple others stayed on the boat, intending on staying there until Carter woke.
“Who do you think it is? And why would Maria just… leave him? Isn’t he the ‘sea demon’ we heard about?” The woman asked, standing next to Jackson who was now crouched beside Carter.
“No idea. If he was the sea demon then he’d be on that boat. Whatever she wanted was on that boat… and he know’s what it is I’m guessing. We just have to wait until he hopefully wakes up Jenny.”
The woman, Jenny, sighed, “well, looks like he’s breathing… only just though.”
After a little bit, Carter slowly moved. He lazily reached a hand outwards, still incredibly sluggish, and didn’t even open his eyes yet. “Arria…” He murmured, reaching out and trying to find his beloved’s warmth. He wanted to snuggle again, to run his hands along Arria’s tail and play with his hair and kiss those perfect lips.
Jackson tilted his head to the side. Arria? Was that who Maria took? He reached out, gently nudging Carter, “Hey, wake up man.” He said, nudging him a little more.
Carter’s eyes flew open when it was not Arria’s voice that greeted him and he threw out a hand to defend himself. Carter’s eyes caught sight if the stranger and he didn’t even have time to process who the man was, he just lunged to tackle him. His goal was to be able to take the stranger down and demand where Arria was, but he neglected to add in the factor of his tail—Carter ended up falling into the man instead of actually tackling him.
Jackson made an oof sound, not expecting to be tacked or really fallen on. He knew something would happen, I mean they had technically kidnapped this man… or merman, “Dude calm down, we’re not gonna ‘urt you, I swear. We’re tryna ‘elp.” Jenny took a few steps back, gun already aimed at Carter.
“Where the fuck is Arria,” Carter ground out, using his arms to try to support himself and look more bold than what he actually was. He honestly looked kinda pathetic, barely able to right himself, and behind the anger in his eyes was complete and utter terror. Carter didn’t quite notice the gun yet. “I swear to gosh darn diddly fuck I just wanted one fucking day to be happy and safe,” He muttered angrily, trying and failing to push away his growing fears. His fears that this time he was too late, that this time something irreversibly bad could’ve happened while he was asleep.
“I’m sorry I don’t know who Arria is,” Jackson held his hands up in surrender, making a small motion with his hand for Jenny to lower the gun, which she did, “But if I take a calculated guess, he’s the sea demon Maria’s been looking for? The…” He paused, knowing his next words were going to be taken very badly, “The one her men took away on their boat about twenty minutes ago.”
Carter’s blood ran cold. He heaved himself off the stranger, “Where am I? Where did they go?” He demanded, trying to move to a better position but failing miserably—his arm slipping which leg him to fall flat on his chest. He needed to stop her, he needed to get to Arria. Right now, before he couldn’t fix things. His angry wall was slowly crumbling away to reveal a panicked, scared man. A man whose world was steadily falling apart again.
Jackson sat up himself, moving to offer a hand to Carter to help him up, “They went down the coast line. I’m sorry they’re probably long gone by now, you won’t find whoever this Arria is,” He sighed, “As for where you are, well, you’re at my base, Riot’s, base.”
Carter tried to right himself on his own first, and with another failure he looked at the stranger’s hand suspiciously. He cautiously took it, getting into a sitting position—or at least, the closest thing to it that he could get with the tail in the way. He glanced at Jenny, then back to Jackson, “Who are you?” He whispered, his voice wavering a little. He didn’t know what he could do anymore. Carter just felt so alone. He wanted to protect Arria so badly but he had failed. Again. And he didn’t know how much longer he could last on his own. What if he couldn’t save Arria this time?
Jackson offered a small smile, “My name’s Jackson, Jackson Smith. I’m the leader of a group called Riot. We try and take down high end criminals, politicians and so on, with people all around the globe doing their job to help,” He tilted his head slightly toward Jenny, “That’s Jenny, my second. And who are you uh… merman?” He helped he’d trust him at least a little, at least enough to explain what was going on and the facts that he knew. It was a lot to take in and he knew it.
Carter shook his head a little, “I-I’m not a merman,” He gestured at his tail as he said, “this will go away in a half hour probably. It’s from a potion,” Carter looked at the ground, hopelessness flashing in his eyes. “My name’s Carter. Arria-“ Carter had to take a second to try to reign in his spinning emotions, “Arria is a merman. He’s the love of my life.” And now he’s gone.
Jackson felt his heart sink for Carter. He couldn’t imagine loosing someone like that, and to a witch like Maria as well, “Oh shit Carter I’m so sorry,” He ran a hand through his hair, “Look, our current aim is to take down Maria, I promise you we’ll get Arria back, however long it takes we’ll get him back man. And take Maria down, too.”
Carter took a deep breath, dragging his eyes up from the floor to look at Jackson. “You’re really going to help me?” He breathed. Help was like a drop of water in the middle of a dehydrated desert. Carter needed it, he needed help. He couldn’t be strong enough to do this on his own anymore.
“I swear on my life, Carter.” Jackson placed a hand over his heart. He knew what it was like to be scared and alone, and two things were for sure, Carter was both of those and Jackson never went back on his promises, “Stock with us, and we’ll get Arria back.”
“What can I do to help?” Carter asked softly, a much needed glimmer of hope finally shining through. He’d do anything to get Arria back. Anything. No matter what kind of obstacles he’d face, no matter how long it took, he’d find Arria.
Jackson stood up, “First we need to find a way to get you into the base while you have your tail. Is there anyway to get your legs back now or do we have to just… wait?” He asked, raising a brow.
“I had potions, but…” Carter shook his head, “We’ll have to wait, unless you could carry me?” He asked with a tiny, only slightly forced chuckle. He looked down at himself, a sinking feeling in his chest. Without Arria, how long would it be until he swam deep in the ocean again? He didn’t have much access to the potions anymore, when he’d get his legs back. Carter told himself this wouldn’t be his last time with a tail, for his own sake.
He scratched at the back of his neck, looking to Jenny who seemed to understand what he was thinking and started heading off the boat, “Well, I suppose I can carry you to the front door, and then will a wheelchair suffice from there?”
“That’d work great,” Carter replied, grateful for the ability to have a wheelchair. He didn’t want to hold anyone back because he needed to be lugged around, it would only make it take longer to find Arria.