Chapter 3
"Now look what you've done!" Rikki exclaimed as her tail appeared.
"Help me!" Rikki whispered to Zane.
Suddenly a frozen ball of water flew at her head; she dodged missing by a whisker. Cleo and Emma began attacking. The moon now had a complete hold on the three mermaids.
Zane ran round the pool trying to work out what to do.
Now a frozen water tentacle came at Rikki. Rikki raised her arm to counter the attack. Soon the tower became a hiss of steam. They attacked again and again, using different angles. Rikki blocked the surge of water each time with her power.
Meanwhile Zane was fending off Bella. He was trying to pull her out of the pool, but she would turn the water around her to jelly, making her heavier than normal. Just as Zane gave up Bella used her power on one of Cleo's water tentacles. It came towards Rikki slowly, threateningly. Rikki tried her power against it, at first the gelatine melted but as Bella hardened it, Emma froze it also, proving too much for the singular mermaid. As Cleo made it attack, Rikki swam ducked under the water, and then out of the way. Rikki evaded many of these attacks, making her very fatigued. Just as she thought she had a rest for a second another gelatine tentacle came at her. Just as this happened, Zane hoisted her out of the way, using all his energy, onto the pavement beside the pool. If Rikki had not have moved, the force of that tentacle would have knocked her unconscious. The effort it took to lift a mermaid out of the water left Zane on the ground breathing heavily. Just as she was flung on dry land her hat and glasses fell off. Fortunately the last of the full moon's rays had just disappeared and then sun was rising.
"Zane!" Rikki gasped, "You saved my life!"
Zane was flattered by what Rikki said
Now on dry ground, Rikki dried herself and transformed back into a human. Zane hoisted three more mermaids out of that pool, and Rikki dried them all. Zane and Rikki swiftly half carried, half dragged the three girls out of the garden.
By the time the girls and Zane arrived back at Cleo and Bella's apartment it was early morning. After laying the unconscious girls on the floor, Rikki and Zane collapsed on the couch.
Rikki looked up at Zane with an insecure look on her face.
"Thank you for saving my life...Or at least saving me from a blinding headache, I really do appreciate it..." Rikki rambled.
"It's ok; I never took last year's comment seriously anyway." He smiled weakly.
"Why did I ever break up with you?" Rikki sighed, as they leaned in to kiss.
"I am terribly sorry for what I did last year... forgive me?" He asked
"You are already forgiven..." Rikki said and Zane kissed her.
"Does this mean we are together again?" He questioned her seriously.
"I'll think about it." Rikki laughed at Zane's expression. "I may need some more convincing." She grinned. Zane leaned in to kiss her again but they were interrupted by an indignant voice.
"Now look at who is being mushy!" Cleo demanded.
"Hey!" Rikki exclaimed.
"Just getting you back" replied Cleo.
Bella and Emma, who had just woken, sat up slowly.
"Oh my head," Bella moaned
"What happened last night, it's a blank for me," Emma asked with her hand on her head.
Rikki began to rattle off the story.
"Pretty much we were all at Emma's parents house 'cos they are away and somehow the moonlight got Bella, then Emma, and then Cleo. I managed to find an old fishing hat and dark glasses so I wouldn't get moonstruck too. You three went to the docks and dived into the water to go who knows where, and then I went and got Zane. You guys jumped into some random's pool and attacked me. Zane saved me from you guys' attacks and we left when the sun rose. Now we are here and I'm summing up what happened last night!"
"Yeah, what she said," Zane said.
"Oka-ay..." Emma said.
"Oopsy" said Cleo
"So are you guys a thing now?" Bella asked smiling slyly.
"I guess..." Zane replied.
Rikki just smiled.
End of Flashback
That was nearly three years ago now and their relationship had been going strong. Rikki believed she was in love. Since that day Rikki had again become co-manager with Zane of her namesake cafe. She had also moved in with Zane, into an apartment a short walk from the cafe.
"Now look at who's being mushy!" Cleo exclaimed. This brought Rikki back to reality. Apparently they had been looking at each other for a long time.
"Hey "Rikki exclaimed, "Déjà vu" she groaned afterwards.
The group resumed talking about numerous things and drank their smoothies.
A girl with bright green eyes and auburn hair entered the cafe and was followed by a handsome guy with dirty blonde hair. She was wearing a lime green tank top and denim shorts. He was in blue boardies and a black singlet. They sat down at a table on the far side of the room, away from the group. Rikki got up and walked over to their table. She had sent all the employees home early. This was because it had been a slow day, and any customers that came in until closing could be served by Rikki and Zane.
"Can I help you?" Rikki asked
"Oh, hi," The guy looked up "Yes, could I have a berry bonanza?"
"One for me too, thanks" The girl said, and smiled at Rikki.
"Sure thing," Rikki said, while writing their order on a little flip pad. "Hey, have I seen you guys around here before?" She asked casually, looking up.
"No, I don't think so, the two of us have recently moved here from Brisbane" the guy replied.
"My name is Robert but please call me Ben and this is my girl friend Anna." He gestured to her, and then reached out to shake Rikki's hand, which she readily accepted.
"Nice to meet you," Anna interjected and held out her hand also to Rikki.
"Nice to meet you both, I'm Rikki" Rikki said as she shook her hand. "I'll bring your smoothies over shortly." Rikki went back to the counter to begin making their smoothies. As she was making them, Cleo came over to the counter and asked if she could heat up an apple pie that she had brought along. Rikki thought this was quite odd, but let her anyway. Cleo placed the pie into the microwave, set the timer and then walked back to Lewis' waiting arms.
'BANG'
The microwave blew up, sending a puff of smoke into the smoke alarm and giving everyone a fright.
"OH NO!" Rikki yelled "that's gonna set the..."
Streams of water fell from the ceiling, and the alarm began to wail.
"...the sprinklers off...oh great" She sighed as she toppled over, an orange scaly tail in place of her legs. Cleo, Emma and Bella had also transformed, sliding onto the floor from their boyfriends. They all panicked. There were two strangers in the cafe and there were four mermaids in plain sight. Will ran over to all the windows and shut the blinds, pulled the curtain over the door and closed the cafe. Zane and Ash tried to move in front of the girls to hide them unsuccessfully. Lewis ran over to the mains to turn the sprinklers off. As he did so everyone realised that they weren't the only mermaids in the cafe. A frozen stream of water hung from the ceiling above Ben's head, he was perfectly dry with his arms still above his head sheltering himself in shock. Anna was not so lucky, she found herself on the floor with what her legs should be a slimy orange scaled tail. As all this settled in she screamed. Lewis ran to her and clamped a hand over the red head's mouth.
"Do you want everyone from outside running in here?" He asked frantically.
"This is just wonderful!" Rikki exclaimed sarcastically.
"What the Hell!" Ben exclaimed in a shaky voice and lowered his arms.
"Anna is it?"Lewis asked. Anna nodded.
"Is this the first time you've transformed like this?" She nodded again.
"Def-def- definitely..." She managed to stutter.
"Why am I surrounded by fish, and more importantly, why am I one of them!" she demanded getting over her initial shock.
"Ahhh..." Lewis said at a loss for words.
Rikki had been drying the floor as they were speaking. Once it had dried she directed her power at her own body 'steam drying' herself as she always called it.
"Cleo!" Rikki barked. "Did you remember to take the metal fork off the top?"
"Hmm...Ahh..." Cleo mumbled sheepishly looking up from the floor
"Cleo!" Everyone exclaimed.
Rikki began steam drying the other mermaids.
"Okay the situation is this; we now have another mermaid – Anna and a mysteriously frozen sprinkler – which I didn't freeze by the way guys!" Emma announced.
Directing his speech towards Anna and Ben, Lewis asked with a scientific tone,
"Have you two been in the proximity of pool in a cavern on Mako Island lately; or more importantly last night?"
"As a matter of fact yes... that is a bad thing isn't it..." He said as he saw the reactions of the group. "We were there last night; we waded into a pool with a view of the sky. Damn strange it was. A lot of sparkles..." he trailed off. The girls looked at each other knowingly.
Rikki had dried all the girls except for Anna.
"This may sting a little..." Rikki warned as she began steam drying Anna. Once Anna was her human self again, Cleo said,
"Maybe we should go somewhere else to talk about this further..."