Hollywood Merman PG-13 Version Read online

Hollywood Merman

  PG-13 Version

  By KuroKoneko Kamen

  Copyright 2015 by KuroKoneko Kamen

  Cover Design by Mathia Arkoniel

  This is a work of fiction. All characters are invented. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Chapter 1: Big Bad Blue

  Levi hated humans.

  For five hundred years he’d lived under the sea, swimming from ocean to ocean, and from one side of the Earth to the other in search of more of his kind - merfolk.

  Yep, Levi was a merman. He had the upper body of a human male and the lower body of a fish. The tail that started bellow his bellybutton was more than five feet long, covered in light blue, dark blue, and green scales, and was extremely powerful. With one whack of his tail Levi could shatter sea boulders or knock a shark out cold.

  Centuries ago, Levi had opened his eyes and simply was. He had no past memory of how he came into being. No identity. He didn’t know how he came to be - if he’d been ‘born’, or if he had parents out there somewhere. Levi simply existed and he’d been holding an impressive, five-foot-long, golden trident in his right hand. The trident was a three-pronged weapon with viscous barbed tips.

  Levi had no memories, but as he looked at the weapon he’d known what it was: My trident. And he’d known that it was a powerful weapon that he could use to protect himself in the vast, wild ocean.

  Right after Levi’s awakening he immediately left the area in search of answers and for beings like himself. What was he? Who was he? He wondered as he swam through the ocean.

  Levi.

  The merman thought he remembered his name or at least part of it. Levi didn’t know for how long he searched the seas for his kind, but eventually he grew curious about the surface world he’d glimpsed through the water.

  Levi swam up towards the ocean’s surface while staring at that enormous, golden globe that was always shinning down upon the ocean, and the strange blue ocean it appeared to be floating in. Its golden color was so blinding, and it seemed so far away. When he breached the surface would he be able to reach out and touch that fiery ball? He wondered. Or would it still be too far away?

  But when Levi finally breached the surface he found a completely different atmosphere. The gills on the sides of his neck closed up, and he was forced to breathe air through his nose and mouth. Levi gasped for breath as he adjusted to the process of breathing and looked around. The other ‘sea’ was actually a ‘sky’, and the giant golden ball of fire was even more far away than he realized. Levi held up his hand and imagined grabbing that ball of fire out of the sky. Sun. A voice from his buried memories whispered through his mind. So that’s the sun. Levi thought.

  The merman looked around and spotted a shoreline. Brimming with curiosity, he swam towards the shore and saw that an entire other world existed above the water. Its terrain was similar to what existed at the bottom of the sea with mountains and rolling hills, but the vegetation was different. Also, the ‘fish’ were able to fly among the branches of the trees and appeared to be defying gravity. Birds. His inner voice whispered to him.

  Strange animals that breathed air and that walked on four legs also populated the land. They were nothing like the creatures of the sea, and when Levi reached his mind out to them, he found that he couldn’t communicate with them telepathically as he could with sea creatures.

  As he was observing life on land he caught his first glimpse of humans. The creatures looked like him. Well, their upper bodies were just like his, but instead of tails below their waist they had strange appendages, which they used to walk on land. Legs. His mind whispered to him. Humans.

  Levi watched as a group of five men entered a boat and began to make their way out into the sea in order to fish. Levi didn’t really understand what the men were doing and swam towards them to get a closer look. When he realized that they were hunting food, this didn’t bother him. After all, Levi also had to hunt fish and eat them in order to survive. Levi was a hunter, a deadly predator of the sea.

  The merman swam closer and decided to try and communicate with the fishermen. He rose up out of the water a few feet away from their boat and raised his hand in greeting.

  However, their reaction to his presence was not at all what Levi expected. As soon as the fishermen caught sight of Levi their eyes bulged and they began to panic. “Ah, it’s a monster!” “No, it’s a merman!” “It’s the devil!” “Kill it! Kill it! Hurry!” The fishermen raised their harpoons and launched them at the startled Levi.

  Levi was so surprised by their violent reaction that he got a harpoon in his shoulder for his trouble. Another thing that had extremely surprised Levi was the fact that he’d been able to understand what the fishermen had been saying to him. Speech. Talking. Language. The words whispered through Levi’s brain.

  Levi opened his mouth and began to form words. He discovered that he had the ability to talk too. Thinking that he’d probably just gotten off on the wrong foot with the fishermen since they hadn’t been expecting to see him, Levi decided to try and speak with the fisherman again a few days later.

  Unfortunately, the second time didn’t go any better than the first. Levi rose up out of the water a few feet away from the small fishing boat and waved his hand. “Good day, gentlemen. Please don’t be startled. I only wish to speak with you.”

  The fishermen seemed to be even more frightened by Levi now that he revealed that he could speak, and didn’t even say anything as they tried to kill him with their harpoons once more. One threw a net at him.

  Levi frowned as he dove down beneath the surface to avoid their attacks and the net. What had he done wrong? He wondered. Was his manner of speaking wrong? Or were they being violent because he was different? Humans fear that which they do not understand. His mind whispered to him. Levi decided that he needed to know more about these humans to better understand them before he would approach them again, and began to observe them closely.

  What he saw was: violence and hate. The humans were always at conflict with each other - fighting wars over land, religion, money, resources, and race.

  Fighting…fighting…always fighting.

  So much needless bloodshed.

  Anytime Levi tried to approach the humans he was met with violence or malicious intent. Levi shuddered when he remembered the time he’d approached a large sailing vessel. The men aboard had thrown a net that had been large and strong enough to capture even Levi. As they were dragging him onboard he managed to escape by cutting the net with his trident, but it had been a close call.

  After that Levi decided to wait. He was a very patient merman. Surely human civilization would evolve and become more peaceful over time.

  But instead of this happening, the humans and their wars only seemed to grow more and more violent. Swords were replaced by guns. Guns by Gatling guns. Gatling guns with machine guns and bombs. Bombs with nuclear weapons. Upon witnessing the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Levi turned his back upon mankind, and decided he was happy to live alone in the sea in peace with the creatures there, only hunting them when he needed to eat, and living in harmony with nature and the ocean.

  Levi prayed that the humans would leave the ocean alone. His prayers weren’t answered however. As the human population continued to grow and their technology advanced - their hold over the ocean also increased. They began to fish large numbers of fish all at once using drift gill nets, which would trap anything unfortunate enough to come across these floating curtains of death. Levi had watched the dolphins and whales he’d befriended die in those nets because they couldn’t get back up to the surface to breathe.

  For centuries, Levi c
ontinued to search the oceans for his kind, hoping to find some allies that could help him protect the seas from the violent humans, but his search was to no avail. His existence would have been incredibly lonely if not for his ability to telepathically communicate with the creatures of the sea. Dolphins were more intelligent than most, and very friendly and playful. But it was whales that were able to hold the most complex conversations with Levi.

  The whales turned out to be wise and friendly creatures, and unlike most of Levi’s other sea friends they could live to be 160-180 years old. During the 21st Century, Levi estimated that about five percent of the population was over a hundred years old. Whales were incredible, majestic creatures that had gained Levi’s awe and respect over his centuries of knowing them.

  One of the most impressive whales was the Bowhead Whale also known as the Greenland Right Whale. The adults could reach sixty feet in length, and could weigh more than a hundred tons. The whales had helped to ease Levi’s loneliness; at least until his friends had started to mysteriously disappear.

  Levi began to investigate what was happening to the whales and discovered that the humans were hunting his whale friends. At first, Levi thought that it was for food, but later he watched the humans harvesting the blubber and melting it down into oil. Levi watched the humans use this oil to make soaps, candles, and cosmetics.

  Now in the 21st Century, Levi was watching them boiling whalebones down into glue, which was then ground into fertilizer. The bones and teeth of his friends were made into tools and jewelry. To Levi it seemed barbaric and disrespectful.

  From 1904-1987 Levi estimated that commercial whaling fleets in the Atlantic alone had killed 1,339,232 of his whale friends. That was 16,000 of his friends murdered year after year for the better part of a century. His only true friends. Presently, there were only around 3,000 of his Blue Whale friends left, when he recalled a time when there used to be 220,000!

  Humans were supposed to be the guardians of the Earth, but even when they passed laws to protect the whales they simply found loopholes to continue hunting them. Levi had eavesdropped upon hundreds of human conversations, and heard them saying that their hunting was merely for ‘scientific research’. Whatever the hell that meant. Levi was pretty sure it was just a bunch of crap. Over the past five centuries, Levi had learned much about humans, and one thing they did consistently was justify their actions for their own benefit.

  Levi took the humans’ barbaric behavior as a declaration of war. If it was a war they wanted - it was a war they were going to get. Levi realized that it was time to take matters into his own hands. The merman decided he wouldn’t allow the humans to kill any more of his whale friends. He’d had enough.

  This resulted in Levi ‘hunting’ the whaling ships. As soon as he would spot one, Levi would swim under it, attack the hull with his golden trident, and puncture a hole into it - effectively sinking the ship. The merman would watch with a triumphant smirk on his face, as the whalers would be forced to evacuate their precious ship and escape onto lifeboats.

  Over the course of the next few months, Levi managed to take out fifty whaling ships in this manner, and as he swam through the ocean he set his sights on number fifty-one. The merman moved gracefully through the water and raised his trident in anticipation. He neared the hull and jabbed his trident forward with all his superhuman strength. The hull was pierced; water rushed inside of the ship and as air escaped the breech zillions of bubbles filled the water like a white cloud.

  Levi was about to leave when several humans dressed in black wetsuits, masks, and with oxygen tanks strapped to their backs, jumped off the deck of the ship and into the water, surrounding Levi in seconds. There were twenty humans in all and all of them held weapons that were pointed Levi’s way. The merman recognized harpoon guns and tranquilizer guns.

  Levi’s dark blue eyes widened. Dang it. A trap!

  The divers fired their harpoons at Levi and the merman blocked their attacks with his trident skillfully. Levi let out a roar of outrage that echoed through the water like a whale call, and swam towards one of the divers. The merman thrust his trident forward and impaled the diver right through his chest.

  Levi pulled back on his trident, however, because of the wetsuit and the human’s ribs, he was unable to pull the trident out of the human’s body. Crap! Battling humans was completely different from battling sharks and giant squid.

  Abruptly, Levi felt tiny bursts of pain all over his body and looked down to see several strange ‘darts’ sticking out of his flesh. Tranquilizer darts. His mind whispered. The merman let out another roar and pulled back on his trident with all his strength. His weapon was finally freed and he quickly put it to good use, blocking darts and harpoons that came sailing his way through the water.

  Unfortunately, his vision was becoming blurry, his head was spinning, and dizziness was overtaking him. He blinked his eyes rapidly as he tried to clear his vision. He realized that he was falling unconscious. No, my battle isn’t over yet. The war has not yet been won!

  A harpoon with a rope attached to it was sailing through the water towards him and Levi couldn’t do anything to stop it. The merman raised his trident to block the attack, but saw two harpoons instead of one because of his blurred vision. He struck out with his trident but missed the true harpoon, striking only water. The harpoon imbedded itself into Levi’s shoulder and he howled in pain.

  As a last ditch effort, Levi swung his trident at the divers while trying to keep them away from him, but they continued to close in and more harpoons were sent flying his way.

  Levi’s limbs became paralyzed. He couldn’t move them and could only watch as the harpoons sailed towards his body and pierced his flesh. Blood from his wounds began to seep into the ocean creating a red cloud. The divers didn’t stop there, however, and continued to shoot tranquilizers at him.

  Meddlesome humans. But at least they didn’t dare to underestimate his strength. So this is how it ends then? At least I died while trying to protect my whale friends.

  ***

  Levi awoke several hours later to a bucket of cold water being thrown into his face. His eyes snapped open, and he gasped and sputtered as his surroundings came into focus. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he came to realize that he was inside of some kind of human facility, and was probably somewhere on land. Ugh.

  Levi cursed his deliberate ignorance as he looked at the strange blinking metal devices, which he was unable to recognize as computers, control consoles, and monitors. Levi had spent the last five hundred years in the ocean with little to no interest in the world above the sea and the violent humans. He was a merman. He wasn’t human, he-

  As Levi struggled against the strange metal bonds that were wrapped around his wrists he felt something cutting into his tail. He looked down, and his eyes popped. No, no, no…this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. Levi stared down at himself in disbelief. He no longer had a long, blue fishtail, but…legs. Human legs. What the hell? My tail…my magnificent tail…what has happened to it? His expression grew alarmed.

  Levi’s breathing became erratic as he began to panic, and he forced himself to calm down as he took stock of the situation. He was restrained to an upright, stainless steel examination table. Thick metal shackles were keeping his wrists and ankles - shudder - strapped to the table.

  Levi looked around the laboratory wildly and saw a small table. It was arranged with sharp looking metal tools that glinted from the overhead florescent lights. The merman could easily guess what those tools would be used for - torture. His torture. Torture devices. Great, just great. He spotted his trident leaning up against one of the walls, renewed his struggling, and let out a roar of outrage.

  “Ah, you’re finally awake, demon.” Came a deep, scathing male voice. The man’s voice was dripping with hatred as he said the word ‘demon’.

  Levi’s gaze flicked over to the speaker - a tall human male dressed all in black. H
e was wearing a long, black trench coat, white button-down shirt, black tie, black pants, and shiny dress shoes. There was a pair of rectangular-shaped, dark sunglasses perched on his strong nose. The man’s hair had been cut short, military style. His presence was that of an experienced solider. His back was very straight and he had his hands behind his back. Levi narrowed his eyes at the human male - his captor - and growled low in his throat.

  The man approached Levi, and stood in front of him, looking Levi over with a critical eye. “Can you not speak, demon? Or is all you can manage grunting animal noises?”

  “What the hell did you do to me, you lowly human? Where is my tail!” Levi demanded as he strained against the shackles, his muscles bulging and flexing.

  The male raised an eyebrow at Levi’s question. “So he can talk. Interesting. As for your tail…it simply disappeared when you dried off. You were unaware that you were capable of such a change?” Levi just glared heatedly at the male in response. “I suspect, if you dove back into the ocean your tail would return, demon. Though that is a moot point, after all there is no escape from this facility.”

  Levi’s brow furrowed. “Why do you keep calling me that? Demon. I’m no demon. I’m a merman.”

  A cruel, sly smile curled the man’s lips. “So you say…but if you were truly a merman then why do you now possess human legs? You are no true merman - just a trickster demon that probably can take on many different forms.”

  A dark scowl formed on Levi’s face. This human was nuts. “Who the hell are you, human? What is this place?”

  “My name is Agent Darkhart. I’m in charge of the ADTF - the Anti-Demonic Terrorism Force. This laboratory is located within our secret underwater base.”

  Hope flared inside of Levi’s chest at the word ‘underwater’. “Why have you brought me here, human?”

  Agent Darkhart calmly walked over to the table covered with sharp objects, put on a pair of rubber gloves, and picked up a gleaming scalpel. It glinted ominously in the overhead fluorescent lights. He turned to face Levi. “Why? For genetic research, of course. It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles. If you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one. If you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled every single battle. Sun Tzu.”

  “Wise words. From a human.” Levi grudgingly admitted. If only he’d known more about his enemy - humans - they wouldn’t have captured him so easily. He’d been foolish to avoid and ignore them so completely.

  “I like to see what makes you demons tick. And since some of you are immortal…you don’t die easily, which means the best way to study you is through vivisection.”

  “Vivisection?”

  “Yes, vivisection.” Agent Darkhart stared at his scalpel thoughtfully, “The process of dissecting a specimen while its still alive for scientific research. First, I’ll cut you open. Then I’ll remove your internal organs one by one. Since you’re immortal I’ll be able to watch you grown them back over the course of several weeks. It’s a truly fascinating phenomenon to observe.”

  “You’re one sick human, you know that?” Levi drawled.

  “And when I tire of your vivisection I’ll harvest your blood, bone marrow, and DNA for my research, and then dispose of you. Just as I have the other demons.” Agent Darkhart smiled as he seemed to be remembering something particularly unpleasant…at least for the demons.

  This was why Levi hated humans. They were screwed up creatures. His body trembled with rage. “Why are you doing this, you sick human?”

  Agent Darkhart began to pace across the laboratory. “For the betterment of mankind, of course. You can continue to ‘play dumb’ all you want, demon. But our kind is at war with your kind - demon kind. It is the ADTF’s job to secretly protect America from demonic threats.”

  Levi’s brow furrowed in confusion. “America…? But I was in the South Atlantic Ocean around what you humans call Antarctica. How…?”

  “My men captured you in the South Atlantic, and I brought you here by submarine.” Agent Darkhart explained. “A submersible warship.”

  “I know what a submarine is.” Levi groused. “If your job is to protect ‘America’ then why did you target me?”

  “You and your kind are a threat to humanity as a whole. Besides, we’ve been watching you for a long time now. Technology has come a long way, demon. I can now locate and track aquatic-type demons such as yourself. The seas are no longer safe for your kind. That ship was your fifty-first ship, wasn’t it? Do you know how many innocent humans you’ve killed?” Agent Darkhart’s eyes blazed with hatred.

  “Do you know how many of my friends your kind has killed? More than a million!” Levi shot back readily.

  Agent Darkhart frowned at Levi’s comment. “You mean, demons-”

  “No, I mean the whales. I’ve been counting…almost 16,000 of my friends have been murdered year after year for the better part of a century!” Levi snarled angrily.

  Agent Darkhart’s dark eyebrows rose. “The whales? Do you mean to tell me that those ships you attacked were all whaling ships?”

  “No kidding Sherlock.” Levi of course, had no idea who the hell this ‘Sherlock’ was but he’d heard humans say such phrases before.

  Agent Darkhart paced. “You’re saying you were trying to protect the whales?” He spun around and faced Levi. “I don’t believe you, demon. Your kind is known for its deception. I will not fall for your lies in an effort to save yourself.”

  “That’s not what I was trying to do, foolish human.”

  Agent Darkhart approached Levi with purposeful steps. “Enough chitchat. It’s time to begin the vivisection. Let’s see if you’re a merman or a demon or whatever, shall we?” He pressed the scalpel to Levi’s sternum and pressed down.

  Levi flinched at the pain but did not cry out. The merman grit his teeth, as the scalpel was pressed even deeper into his flesh, drawing blood.

  Agent Darkhart moved the scalpel down, opening an incision right over Levi’s heart. Once the incision was finished Agent Darkhart set the scalpel down on a nearby table and picked up the portable buzz saw. He turned it on and a whirring sound filled the air. Agent Darkhart approached Levi and pressed the buzz saw against the merman’s sternum cutting into the bone.

  Levi was forced to bite down onto his lower lip to cut off his yell of pain. The merman’s vision swam as he almost lost consciousness. A few minutes later, he vaguely noted that Agent Darkhart had finished his sinister task and was setting the bloody buzz saw back down on the table. The agent approached Levi, stood directly in front of him with a sadistic smile on his face, and inserted his hand into Levi’s chest. Agent Darkhart closed his hand around Levi’s still beating heart. “Can you feel that, demon?”

  Levi gulped.

  “Let’s see if I can make you scream, demon.” Agent Darkhart sneered right before he ripped Levi’s heart right out of his chest.

  Levi’s eyes bugged and he grit his teeth against the yell of pain that wanted to pass his lips.

  Agent Darkhart raised the still beating heart up to show it to Levi. “How does it feel, demon? To have your heart ripped out of your chest? Now you know how I felt when-”

  The sound of a cell phone’s ring tone going off was heard as Who Are You? by The Who filled the laboratory. “Oh bother.” Agent Darkhart swore before quickly putting Levi’s heart into a jar that was filled with formaldehyde, and screwing on the lid tight. He removed his latex gloves and answered his cell. “Hello? Mr. President! Ah…yes…yes…I understand.” Agent Darkhart gave Levi a suspicious look before heading towards the exit of the laboratory.

  Levi watched as Agent Darkhart approached a metal door, pressed his finger against a pad on the door lock, and watched as the door slid open with a whoosh. “You two…watch him.” Agent Darkhart barked the order at the two guards who were standing just outside the door on either side.


  “Yes, Sir!” Came the voices of two human males. These two guards entered the laboratory and approached Levi. Agent Darkhart’s soldiers were also dressed all in black. They had on black military vests that had several pockets to conceal a variety of weapons, black cargo pants, and combat boots. The males looked human except…that one of the men had horns sprouting out of his head and the other had a tail with a barbed end swishing behind him. Genetically engineered soldiers. Levi’s mind whispered. But the merman ignored this outlandish suggestion.

  “Demons.” Levi spat through gritted teeth, as blood poured out of the gaping hole in the center of his chest and trickled down his entire body until finally hitting the floor.

  The soldiers raised their eyebrows at Levi and chuckled darkly. “Did he just call us demons?” The soldier with the horns shook his head. “Crazy, man.”

  “Yeah, I know, right?” His friend with the tail replied.

  Levi scowled at them. “If you’re not demons then…what are you?”

  “We’re genetically engineered super soldiers. Our DNA was combined with demon DNA to make us stronger - strong enough to combat you demons.” The soldier with the horns explained.

  Levi scowled. “Genetically engineered…?”

  “It means Agent Darkhart takes a piece of you guys and puts it inside of us to make us stronger - it transforms us.” The soldier with the tail explained in a condescending manner.

  “Oh.” There were just two of them and their presences were a lot less intimidating than Agent Darkhart’s. Levi realized that this was probably the only chance he was going to get to escape. There was no escaping Agent Darkhart. Levi let out a roar and strained against the metal shackles, causing his muscles to bulge.

  The two super soldiers just laughed at Levi’s effort. “Doesn’t he know those restraints are indestructible?”

  But Levi would not give up. He continued to strain against his bonds using all of his superhuman strength. More blood poured down his chest from the effort. And then finally the shackles began to crack.

  “Holy crap…he’s doing it!” “Quick, get the tranquilizer gun!” The soldiers shouted at each other.

  “I don’t think so!” Levi broke free of the shackles and took a step forward towards the soldiers in a threatening manner. However, as his foot hit the floor a lance of pain went up his leg and he collapsed to his knees. It felt like he’d been walking on knives.

  “Get him!” The soldiers both approached Levi with menacing steps.

  One soldier made a grab for Levi’s shoulder, but Levi reached out, grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted. The soldier hollered in pain as Levi broke his wrist. Levi used his arm strength to toss the solider aside. The second soldier decided to tackle Levi to the floor. Big mistake. Levi might not have had control over his legs yet, but he could still control his arms. Levi and the soldier grappled upon the floor, and the merman put the soldier into a headlock.

  The soldier struggled in Levi’s fierce grasp, trying to pry the merman’s arm away. Levi twisted the man’s neck, breaking it. A resounding crack filled the laboratory.

  The other soldier was cradling his broken wrist and looking at Levi with wide, fearful eyes. Levi began to pull his body across the floor, and crawled towards the soldier hoping to attack before the soldier decided to stand. The soldier seemed to realize this as well and quickly stood up.

  However, Levi grabbed the soldier’s legs and yanked him back down to the floor. Levi and the soldier wrestled for a few minutes, and Levi managed to crawl on top of the soldier and straddle him. Levi wrapped his hands around the soldier’s neck and started to squeeze.

  The soldier’s eyes bugled and he clawed at Levi’s hand with his demonic claws, but to no avail. The man was strangled to death in less than a minute.

  Levi rolled off of the soldier onto his back and sat up. He glanced over to where his golden trident was leaning up against the wall. First things, first. He needed to get to his trident, and he was going to walk to do it. He shuddered at the thought.

  Levi crouched on his feet and slowly straightened his back until he was standing. He took a deep breath before raising his right foot and moving it forward. As soon as his foot landed on the floor it felt like hundreds of tiny knives or razorblades were cutting the sole of his foot.

  Levi gritted his teeth and ignored the pain. Before the pain had caught him off guard and he’d fallen, but now he was mentally prepared for it. Besides, what could hurt more than getting your heart ripped out of your chest?

  The merman continued his way forward, putting one foot in front of the other. His legs were wobbly like jelly, and he stumbled. Levi had to catch himself on the table piled with torture devices and ended up knocking several of them onto the floor. He let go after a moment, and continued his way towards his trident, still feeling like he was walking on a blanket of knives.

  When Levi finally reached his trident, he reached out and grabbed it. As his hand wrapped around the smooth metal pole he smirked. Levi looked behind him and noted the bloody footprints he’d left behind on the floor and frowned. He wondered if all humans felt the same pain when they walked on land, and that this was why they wore the strange contraptions he’d seen on their feet. Shoes. His mind whispered the word to him. Levi swore at the fact that for five hundred years he hadn’t bothered to learn more about his human enemy.

  Levi staggered towards the exit door, but when he put his finger where Agent Darkhart had placed his the door remained closed. He frowned and glanced over at the fallen form of one of the soldiers. An idea came to Levi and he made his way over to the soldier. He crouched down and ripped off one of the soldier’s fingers before carrying it back over to the door. He pressed the finger against the pad, and the door slid open.

  The merman made his way out into the hallway beyond and the door swished shut behind him. Agent Darkhart had mentioned that this was some kind of underwater facility, which meant Levi just had to find an exit to the ocean and he could escape. He would be free.

  Levi sniffed the air. He caught the scent of saltwater coming from his left and so headed in that direction, making his way down the hall as fast as he could. His left hand was keeping his chest closed while he had his right hand wrapped around his trident. If he encountered any more of those genetically engineered soldiers he was going to skewer them.

  Bloody footprints were left in Levi’s wake as he made his way down the hall until he reached an intersection. Three soldiers abruptly appeared from the hallway to Levi’s right.

  “Who the hell?” One of the soldiers exclaimed upon seeing Levi.

  Levi didn’t give him the chance to finish his sentence. He jabbed his trident into the man’s chest, impaling him. The soldier looked down at the trident imbedded into his chest in horror, his eyes widened, and blood began to dribble down his chin. “He…help me…” He begged his comrades.

  Levi swung his trident with the soldier still attached to his weapon into the soldier that had been on the man’s right, and pushed forward with all of his strength so that the soldier went slamming into the wall, and was knocked unconscious from the blow. One left.

  “Demon, scum!” The remaining soldier growled, whipping out a dagger, and attacking Levi with it.

  Levi removed his left hand from the gaping hole in his chest, grabbed the man’s wrist, and bent it - breaking the man’s wrist instantly. The soldier howled in pain and dropped the dagger.

  Levi let go of the man’s wrist and swung the body of his comrade into him. The merman knocked the soldier to the floor and hopped on top of the two piled bodies. Levi applied more pressure to his trident so that it went through the first body and impaled the body of the second struggling soldier too.

  In seconds, the soldier was dead. Levi planted his foot on his first victim’s body, and yanked his trident out of both bodies with all his strength. Levi frowned. A trident tended to be a pretty lousy weapon against these humans. It kept getting stuck in their bodies between th
eir ribs because of the trident’s barbed ends. Those barbed ends had come in handy when Levi had had to battle the occasional hungry shark or giant squid though.

  Levi slashed his trident through the air to remove the disgusting human blood from it. He did not smile because of his successful kills. The merman merely continued his way, and the smell of saltwater was getting stronger. He reached another door and pressed the finger he had with him against the lock. It slid open and Levi entered a large chamber.

  The chamber was filled with human transportation vessels that Levi had seen before, and recognized as being ‘submarines’. The submarines were half submerged in the water. Levi longed to just dive right into the water, but as he looked around he saw that the chamber appeared to be completely enclosed. Even if he hopped into the water he would be trapped like a fish inside of a gigantic bowl. He quickly noted the large, round doors that probably had to be opened so that the submarines could exit the base. Somehow Levi had to get one of those doors open so he could make his escape. But he had no idea how. I’m so screwed.

  The door next to Levi swished open and the merman ducked behind some nearby storage crates for cover. Two males were chatting excitedly together.

  “When do you think they’ll give you permission to drive one of the subs?” One of the males asked.

  “I dunno…but when they do it’s going to be sweet!” The man’s companion responded enthusiastically.

  “Agent Darkhart is such a stickler for following the rules.”

  The two boys laughed at that.

  Levi peeked around the crate at the two soldiers, prepared to attack them, however, he realized that the soldiers were…different. They were much smaller than the other soldiers he’d just fought against. Shorter. Younger. Levi realized. “They’re just…boys.” Levi muttered to himself as he lowered his trident and held his breath so he wouldn’t attract the boys’ attention.

  The two teens continued to gawk at and admire the subs before one of them let out a disappointed sigh. “Aw crap, it’s the end of lunch period already. We gotta get back to class.”

  “Crap. If we’re late Agent Darkhart is gonna kill us! Let’s go!” The two boys ran for the exit of the hanger and left.

  “Why didn’t you kill them?” Came a drawling voice that sounded slightly amused.

  Levi jumped and turned to see a man leaning against the door in a relaxed pose while he smoked a cigarette. Or perhaps not a man? He felt different from the humans. More powerful. Deadly. Dangerous. He was tall with a muscular physique, bronzed skin, slicked-back red hair, and sharp golden eyes. The redhead was wearing a long, black leather trench coat and combat boots with buckles on them. Levi’s eyes narrowed and he was immediately on his guard.

  “They were just…kids.” Levi explained, adjusting his hold on his trident in case he was in for a fight.

  “Hmm, that so?” The man hummed. “You know, those two kids were soldiers in training. They’ll grow up to be like the soldiers you surely had to kill to get all the way to this hanger.” The man eyed the blood on Levi’s trident with a pointed look.

  “When they become adults and if they’re stupid enough to choose to fight me - I’ll kill them then.” Levi said.

  The redhead raised an eyebrow at Levi’s response and chuckled. He choked on cigarette smoke and beat his chest with his hand. “Pfft, is that so?” He wiped a tear from his eye since he’d been laughing so hard and looked Levi over. “Man, you look like something the cat threw up. Straight off the table from a vivisection, huh? Did Agent Darkhart rip your heart out?”

  “The gaping hole in my chest gave me away, huh?” Levi drawled.

  The redhead began to laugh again. “I like you.”

  Blaring alarms began to go off, their sound filling the chamber, and red lights began to flash on and off. The redhead frowned in response. “Hmm, that can’t be good.” He muttered to himself.

  “INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT.” A synthesized voice boomed.

  “Well, I guess that’s our cue.” The redhead threw his cigarette on the floor and stomped on it with his boot.

  Levi just stood still and watched the redhead walk away.

  The redhead glanced over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow at him. “You coming or not?”

  Levi’s eyes widened in surprise. This man was…helping him? Impossible. He shook his head. It was probably a trap. “How do I know I can trust you?”

  The redhead sighed and ran a hand back through his hair. “Look, buddy, I don’t usually do nice things like this. In fact, I’m usually putting your kind in here, but…you seem different from the usual scumbags I bring in here, so I’m giving you a choice - come with me if you want to live. Or not. The choice is yours. You can bleed out all over the floor and die for all I care.” The redhead turned his head and continued to walk away.

  “Aw screw it…I’m coming. Wait up.” Levi clutched his chest and staggered after the redhead as fast as he could.

  The redhead paused and looked over at Levi. “Can’t you move faster?” He noticed the trail of bloody footprints Levi was leaving behind and frowned. “How did you hurt your feet?”

  “They’re not hurt.” Levi said through gritted teeth.

  “Uh huh.” The redhead didn’t sound too convinced. He made his way over to Levi and put Levi’s arm around his shoulders. “Come on, you big lug, we gotta leave before Agent Darkhart suspects I helped you out of here. I’m really sticking my neck out for you, you know? My name is Ambrose Rune by the way. You have a name, bud?”

  “Levi.”

  Ambrose did a double take then, as he looked Levi over once more. “Levi…you can’t be…?” He shook his head. “Never mind.” Ambrose helped Levi over to his own small submarine that Agent Darkhart had given him for the express purpose of being able to enter and leave the base freely. But Levi didn’t really need to know about that.

  Ambrose helped Levi into the sub, dragged him into the control room, and set the guy down onto a passenger seat. Ambrose sat down behind the submarine’s controls, and started up the sub by flicking on a couple of switches, and turning on the engine. The round exit hatch automatically opened at the submarine’s approach and Ambrose easily guided the sub out of the exit and into the ocean beyond.

  Levi looked out through the large front windshield with interest and sagged with relief once they were completely surrounded by water. This was his element. Where he was meant to be.

  Ambrose set his course for the docking station at Pier 45 in San Francisco. Twenty minutes later, Ambrose realized it had gotten awfully quiet inside of the sub even though he had a passenger. “Hey, how you doing over there, buddy?”

  When there was no response, Ambrose turned to look over at Levi and saw that the man had fallen unconscious. Blood was leaking down his chest and onto his seat.

  “Bloody hell!” Ambrose swore. The blue-haired man was in bad shape. Even though he was probably immortal and would regrow his heart eventually - if the man lost enough blood there was the minute possibility that Levi could in fact die. Immortality was tricky like that. One sure way to kill an immortal was of course with a beheading, but Agent Darkhart tended to play with his victims first. Ambrose knew that he needed to get the man stitched up pronto though.

  It felt like ages before Ambrose was finally docking his submarine at Pier 45. He exited the sub with Levi in tow. The city of San Francisco could be seen in the distance with its tall, white skyscrapers. It was past midnight, but Ambrose realized that walking around with a man with a hole in his chest through such a populated urban area wasn’t exactly wise.

  Ambrose stripped off his trench coat and quickly put it on Levi before buttoning it up. He hefted the man up, put the man’s arm over his shoulders, and proceeded to drag his heavy butt to Sasha Robinovitch’s Animal Clinic and Pet Shop. Sasha was a friend of his and also an eccentric veterinarian with low blood sugar who’d he met at the bakery where he worked as an assistant patissier: Dolly’s Tea P
arty Bakery. Sasha loved Ambrose’s cakes and cookies, and told Ambrose that his cakes helped to keep her awake and stopped her fainting spells. Ten minutes later, Ambrose was pounding on the animal clinic’s door.

  “Hold your horses! I’m coming! I’m coming!” Came a harried female voice from inside. Sasha opened the door, spotted Ambrose and his blue-haired friend, and her eyes widened. “Ambrose…hi…what’s up?”

  “Sorry, Sasha, this isn’t a social call. My friend here needs immediate medical attention.” Ambrose said as he carried Levi through the clinic and headed towards the back where he knew the examination room was.

  “I keep telling you…I’m a veterinarian, not a doctor!” Sasha argued as she followed closely behind. This wasn’t the first time Ambrose had shown up at Sasha’s covered in blood (usually someone else’s) in the middle of the night.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Ambrose noted what Sasha was wearing and smirked. She had on a pair of pink, flannel pj’s, and Garfield slippers. This girl loved the color pink. Her messy strawberry blonde hair could have almost been considered pink.

  Sasha shuffled after Ambrose with a worried expression on her face. “What happened to him?” She asked as Ambrose set the blue-haired man down on her operating table.

  “Remember what I said about questions, Sasha?”

  “Yeah, yeah…if you tell me you’ll have to kill me.” She waved her hand dismissively through the air as Ambrose unbuttoned the blue-haired man’s trench coat to reveal the damage to Levi’s chest.

  Sasha gasped as she saw the gaping wound on Levi’s chest. But then she gasped for a very different reason as Ambrose continued to unbutton the jacket to reveal that Levi was naked. “Eek!” Sasha covered her eyes with her hand and peeked through her fingers. “He’s naked!”

  “Sasha, has any one ever told you: you are incredibly unprofessional?” Ambrose asked wryly.

  Sasha pouted. “I’m a veterinarian, Ambrose. Like I keep telling you. Animal doctor. Not human doctor. I’ve never seen a-” She coughed awkwardly into her hand. “What I mean to say is…I’ve never seen a naked man before. Please cover him up with a towel or something.” Sasha rushed over to grab a towel and tossed it to Ambrose.

  Highly amused, Ambrose took the towel and laid it over Levi’s crotch. “You’ve never seen a naked man before? Does that mean you’re a virgin, Miss Robinovitch?” There was a mischievous twinkle in Ambrose’s gold eyes.

  “Th-That’s none of your business!” Sasha sputtered as she got out a syringe to inject Levi with some Demerol.

  “Oh really? I could always help you out, you know…with loosing your virginity. I would be more than happy to oblige.” Ambrose waggled his eyebrows at her.

  Sasha ignored Ambrose as she administered the injection and sprayed some anti-bacterial spray over the wound on Levi’s chest. Her cheeks were bright red. “Ambrose, be serious.” She put on a pair of latex gloves, and got out a needle and thread. “Oh wait, I should probably check and see if there’s any internal damage first.” Sasha set down the needle and thread, and picked up a pair of clamps. She was reaching out with them towards Levi’s chest when Ambrose stopped her with a hand on her wrist.

  “No, don’t look. He’ll be fine as long as you stitch him up, okay?” Ambrose said sternly. He knew that Levi’s heart would regrow itself and his sternum would mend itself back together too. Ah, the perks of being an immortal.

  Sasha frowned, but pulled her hand back and set down the clamps. “Okay, if you say so. I trust you, Ambrose.” The veterinarian began to stitch up the chest wound as slowly and carefully as possible so that it would leave a minimal scar. The poor man had so many scars already…and one on his lower stomach that looked like a shark bite. As she worked she couldn’t help but notice the depression in the man’s chest as if he were…missing something. Surely not…no…that would be impossible. Thoughts so not going there.

  But Sasha also knew that the impossible was possible. Her father Dr. Lazar Robinovitch was a famous geneticist who worked for the US military. She used to watch her father’s first experiments where he’d combined a mysterious DNA sample with animal DNA, and had created…monsters.

  For some reason, Sasha sensed that Ambrose wasn’t ‘normal’ but some kind of ‘monster’. This was A-okay with her though because Sasha liked monsters. All of the failed experiments her father had told her to get rid of, Sasha had decided to keep as pets and kept them secretly in her basement at the animal clinic.

  Sasha had the feeling that this blue-haired man on the table was also some kind of monster albeit a very handsome one. The man was quite large and at six-five his feet were dangling off the operating table. He was very muscular, had slightly tanned skin, and long blue hair that looked natural, as weird as that was. She couldn’t see his eyes, but he had long lashes. The rest of his features were very masculine - a strong nose, square chin, muscular chest, and six-pack abs.

  Sasha decided that she didn’t really mind Ambrose bringing her charity cases…as long as they looked like this. She smiled dopily until the pale and unconscious state of her patient began to worry her. The veterinarian could only hope that he’d be okay. The man had lost a lot of blood. And that was putting it mildly. Only time would tell.

  “Well, I’d better get going. I leave Levi in your capable hands. Thanks for this. This is another one I owe you, Sasha.” Ambrose said, interrupting Sasha’s thoughts.

  Sasha removed her rubber gloves and set them on the table. “So his name is Levi? And don’t mention it - you know I accept payment in cake.”

  Ambrose chuckled in response. “I’ll be sure to bake you the most delicious cake you’ve ever tasted.”

  “I’m counting on it.” Sasha said as she watched Ambrose turn to leave.

  “Ah, and one more thing.” Ambrose stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “No blood samples or samples of any kind.”

  “Tch. Stingy.” Sasha pouted but nodded. “You have my word.”

  Ambrose nodded in thanks, and exited the examination room. Sasha’s attention returned to her patient. She was highly interested in him. Normally, Sasha had little interest in human beings. Her passion was animals. This is why she’d become a veterinarian. But Ambrose and this man Levi, who was now on her operating table, were…different. They weren’t human. No, they were something else. Something extraordinary.

  Sasha took a seat on a metal folding chair and it wasn’t long before she dozed off. Hours later, she came awake with a start and checked on her patient. “Fascinating.” It had only taken a few hours for the wound on the man’s chest to heal completely. Sasha ran her gloved hand over the scar. Apparently, he had regeneration abilities like the fictional Wolverine. “I would love to study this specimen and see what makes him tick. See what makes him special. But alas, Ambrose forbid me from taking a DNA sample.” Sasha pouted. She couldn’t risk Ambrose getting mad with her since there would go her free cake supply, but it was almost worth the risk.

  Sasha fingered a lock of Levi’s blue hair thoughtfully. Until recently, she’d participated in her father’s experiments on animals, but now that he’d moved on to experimenting with human subjects Sasha was not allowed to get involved. Dr. Lazar’s work was a top government secret.

  Over the next couple of days, Sasha continued to care for Levi while he remained unconscious. On day five, Levi began to toss and turn violently in his sleep. Sasha placed a gloved hand over his forehead and through the rubber she could feel that he was burning up. She checked the IV that was attached to Levi’s arm. “Towels…towels…I need towels.” Sasha muttered to herself as she looked around the operating room.

  The first sign of going crazy was talking to yourself. Oops. “Guess I’ll have to go down to the lab.” Sasha walked over to a generic looking bookshelf and pulled on the spine of The Island of Doctor Moreau. There was a clicking sound and the bookshelf swung open to reveal an elevator. Sasha stepped inside and pressed the button for the basement level. A few second
s later, she was stepping out of the elevator and into her secret underground laboratory.

  It had everything a female mad scientist could desire - Tesla coils of all shapes and sizes with bluish, purple electrical energy moving between metal bars and inside of glass globes. A Newton’s cradle with steel balance balls that hit each other indefinitely when you got them started. A chemistry set consisting of different sized beakers and test tubes displayed in various stands. Some of the beakers were filled with colored, frothing substances. And some of the test tubes contained samples of God only knew what.

  But that wasn’t the best part of her hidden lab - the animals were.

  No, they couldn’t really be called animals at this point.

  They were monsters.

  The animals - dogs, cats, bunnies, and turtles - that had been combined with the mysterious DNA sample her father had somehow gotten a hold of, had all sprouted horns, fangs, claws, and wings. They had all ended up looking positively demonic.

  The animals usually went berserk after the transformation, and Dr. Lazar Robinovitch had left the responsibility of disposing of the specimens to Sasha. Except…Sasha hadn’t disposed of the specimens like her father had wanted. Instead she’d saved them and kept them hidden in her lab in giant cages. Because Sasha had the ability to telepathically communicate with animals she’d done the impossible and even managed to tame them.

  Sasha had also discovered a way to stabilize their DNA, so that they didn’t explode into a mass of goo like some of the other poor specimens had. She went over to her cages to say ‘hi’ to her precious babies. “Hi, my babies, did you miss mommy? Because mommy missed you.” She cooed at the monsters inside of the cages using her ‘baby voice’.

  Some of the animals weren’t tame yet and snapped their fangs at Sasha viciously. “Ohhhhh is someone hungry?” Sasha asked the giant dog with horns sprouting out of its head. “Here.” Sasha grabbed a raw steak and tossed it inside of the cage. The beast ripped it to shreds in seconds. “Awww someone was a hungry boy.”

  Sasha whistled Twisted Nerve by Bernard Herrman to herself as she made her way over to a cabinet where she kept the spare towels and found some clothes too. The veterinarian decided she would try to dress Levi in his sleep. Sasha gathered up the towels and clothes, and returned to the operating room. She filled a basin with cold water and dunked one of the towels in it. She wrung out the towel and placed it on Levi’s burning forehead.

  Now to dress him. She swallowed nervously. Sasha had never seen a naked man before now. The veterinarian grabbed the sheet that was covering Levi’s lower half and pulled it aside. Eep! Sasha couldn’t help it - she looked right between Levi’s legs. Her eyes widened and she moved closer to make an inspection. “So that’s what it looks like. It sure is funny looking.”

  Sasha felt flushed and clinically realized that she was becoming aroused by the sight of Levi. “I want to be with him?” Sasha slapped her face with her hands. “Oh my God! When did I turn into such a pervert? I’m so sorry Mr. Levi!” Sasha apologized, grabbed the pair of boxers she’d brought with her, and quickly put them on Levi.

  Sasha’s throat felt dry and she swallowed. She fanned her face. “Oh my God…I can’t stay here with him when he’s half-naked like that! I need…more towels! Yeah…I’ll go get more.” Sasha returned to the lab and got even more towels. By the time she finally returned she was carrying a pile of ten towels. She stepped out of the elevator and looked over towards the operating table. “Oh my gosh…you’re finally awake!” Sasha gasped when she saw that Levi was wide-awake. She was so surprised she dropped the towels she’d been carrying.

  Levi removed the IV that was in his arm with an angry yank, and in a blink he was standing in front of Sasha. Then his hand was wrapping around her neck and he slammed her into the wall with a feral growl.

  Sasha looked into Levi’s dark blue eyes, unafraid. “It’s okay…I won’t hurt you.” She gasped.

  Levi’s brow furrowed and the aggression seemed to seep out of his body. Levi let go of Sasha’s throat and turned towards the exit of the operating room.

  Sasha sunk to the floor on her knees, and put a hand to her sore throat as she coughed. “Wait! We can help you. I can help you.” She called out to him in an urgent tone.

  Levi glanced over his shoulder and hesitated before he shook his head and walked out of the veterinary clinic.

  “He’s dressed in only a pair of boxers…oh my God…Ambrose is going to kill me!” Sasha moaned as she gripped the sides of her head with her hands. “If he stops making me cookies I don’t know what I’m going to do!”

  To be continued in…Fish 2: Sweet Salmon